Strokestown International Poetry Festival is delighted to announce that Rachael Hegarty will be our competition judge for our 2026 renewal.
Dr. Rachael Hegarty is a Dubliner and multiple prize winning poet. She was educated by the Holy Faithers in Finglas, the U. Mass. Bostonians, the Trinity M.Phillers in Dublin and the Ph.D. Magicians at Queens University, Belfast.
Her debut collection, Flight Paths Over Finglas was hewn from her hometown. A child survivor of the Talbot Street bomb, her second collection May Day 1974, has received critical acclaim for the 33 docu-sonnets and 33 ballads for the people who died on the single worst day the Troubles. Her third collection, Dancing with Memory is a dance hall of memory for her mother who lived with dementia. Her fourth collection, Wild Flowers on the Darndale Roundabout was inspired by the Fridays for Future activists.
She teaches at the Trinity Access Programme and presents Poetry People on RTÉ Radio 1. In 2025 she was a co-judge for the Eavan Boland Award. Her next collection, The Lives of Saints will be launched in November 2026.
Rachael’s kids say she uses the 3 F- words too much: Finglas, feminism and feckin’ poetry.